In an effort to help promote the phenomenal Championship Wrestling from Florida event to benefit the Championship Wrestling from Florida Wall of Fame in Tampa, Florida on June 11th at the JCC and Federation (jewishtampa.com) the great Joe Malenko joins The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling. The event itself features a who’s who of legends from the illustrious history of Championship Wrestling from Florida and will feature VIP Meet and Greets with stars of wrestling past and present as well as a live wrestling demonstration. Joe Malenko also talks in great detail about his career in pro wrestling and shares many stories about working in Japan for Giant Baba, learning to wrestle under the watchful eye of his father the great Boris Malenko and teaming with his brother Dean Malenko all over the globe. Joe also gives his view on today’s wrestling scene and how the difference between both generations of wrestlers isn’t as complex as you may think.
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Joe Malenko on Giant Baba ribbing him in Japan:
Joe Malenko on Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko feud in WCW:
Championship Wrestling from Florida event to benefit the Championship Wrestling from Florida Wall of Fame
This is a multi-functional event. It is going to allow a place for a lot of the boys who haven’t seen each other for a long time. One of the guys I talked to today is a guy by the name of Scott McGhee who used to wrestle here. I actually helped train him and nobody has seen Scott for a very very long time. So it is a chance to have a little bit of a reunion amongst guys who don’t get to see each other too often. For the fans, it is amazing how most of the fans today know all of these guys. Even going back into the 50s because the wrestling fans are amazing. Some fans are real archivists. The fans are going to get a chance to see guys they don’t normally see and actually guys you may never see again. Sad to say there are guys who are getting older and may retire from doing fan fests and meet and greets.
Breaking into the wrestling business:
Getting into the business was a natural progression for me. My Dad really didn’t open up many doors, he helped me get to people that opened up those doors. Carl (Gotch) got me into Mexico the first time. Abe Jacobs up in the Carolina’s trained me before I went to Mexico while I was working for Mid-Atlantic. My Dad did get me in there but he didn’t push me. I refereed mostly and wrestled a little bit. I was actually a guy that if you wanted to break into the business in Mid-Atlantic was the one you went down and trained with and worked out against. The whole premise of that was; if you go down with the referee and you can’t beat him then what chance do you stand? Most of the guys I went down there with would say that I was killing them and they would quit while we were working out and I would go back to the office and let them know.
His brother Dean Malenko and the wrestler he became:
I was one of his biggest fans. He was absolutely great. He had some phenomenal talent that he worked against which always helps like Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero and Mysterio and those guys. That whole Cruiser-weight division was stellar. If you were any kind of a hand and you couldn’t have good matches there then you couldn’t have them anywhere and he really shined. I was and am still proud of him. I didn’t know he would make into the big leagues because we didn’t think that was possible but thank GOD ECW opened up the door first and introduced these guys, then WCW picked them all up. Before it was a big mans game.
Teaming with Dean, facing the other great tag teams and working in Japan:
Everything that you’ve ever heard about the crowds in Japan I am going to mirror. They were a very respectful group of people and you never had to worry about whether or not you were going to walk to the ring. If you had heat nobody was going to stab you or attack you. We had many great matches there against The Fantastics, The Bulldogs, Doc (Steve Williams) and Terry (Gordy) and we were part of a major mutual admiration society with The Bulldogs (laughs). We had a great pace. To be over there and be able to wrestle and show a ground game was a huge plus. Last but not least, they paid us. When you went to Japan you knew what you were going to make and at the end of the tour you got what you were told and I think that helped all of the guys get along for the most part and I made some of my best friends while working over there.
Joe Malenko also discusses his legendary father Boris Malenko, would the WWE wrestlers be able to work in the old territory system, Championship Wrestling from Florida and his greatest matches while working in the business.
